Messages - Millet

Brian, nice greenhouse. When you have your main heater hooked up, you might not want it hoked directly into your electric source. I have two 250,000 BTU over head heaters set to come on at different temperatures so that if one stops working the second one can take over until repairs are made. When the greenhouse was built I told the election to make one of the heaters with a two prong plug end, that way if I lose power during a winter storm I can plug it directly into a generator. Be sure to have the intake vents set up so that they open every time the exhaust fans turn on, and close when the fans shut off. You did a magnificent job with your greenhouse, i really looks to notch. I'm sending your tree on Monday March 19.

SoCal2Warm wrote..... "Yuzu used to be commonly used as a rootstock in Japan"

It is interesting at this point in the discussion that Yuzu was brought up as a Japanese rootstock The reason that Yuzu is no longer used much in Japan is because it has been replaced by Trifoliate which is now the number 1 root stock in that country. Yuzu' has been used in Japan for centuries and was their principal stock prior to the acceptance of trifoliate. Trees on trifoliate are more precocious in bearing and initially grow more rapidly than trees on 'Yuzu'. However, in Japan trees on trifoliate stock sometimes begin to decline after 10 to 20 years, (as was stated above) and it is the practice to inarch these trees with 'Yuzu' as soon as growth seems to be retarded. The declining trees recover and become long-lived and productive. Interesting relationship between the two rootstocks. Thank you SoCal2Warm for the Yuzu comment.

Heat plays a role in determining the time of fruit maturity and the level of fruit quality. The heat requirement is determined by the number of hours that the temperature is above 55-F from the time of bloom to maturity. In general, grapefruit have the highest heat requirement, about 11,000 hours. Varieties that have lower heat requirements mature earlier than do those with high heat requirements. Grapefruit is the most resistant citrus fruit to high temperatures, which is why most grapefruit grown in California are in the desert valleys of Southern California.

behlgarden, congratulations on your pink variegated lemon. The variegated pink lemon is a selection of the Eureka lemon. A mandarin grafted upon a lemon would produce a less sweet poorer quality fruit than it would be if grafted on either Trifoliate or Troyer.

What SoCal2Warm writes is true, however you still need to be careful of the planting location. Trifoliate is well adapted to loam, sandy loam, and clay soils. It can also perform well on sandy soils, but only if irrigation is managed very carefully, because the roots are shallow and therefore trees on Trifoliate are very susceptible to drought. Trifoliate does poorly on salinity and calcareous soils (higher pH). Most mandarins perform well on Trifoliate for at least 10 to 15 years but eventually develop bud union crease and then the tree declines. Much is the same with Troyer and its sister rootstock Carrizo (both Troyer and Carrizo originated from a single hybrid seedling of Washington navel orange x Trifoliate Orange). Troyer and Carrizo citranges adapt well to loam, sandy loam and sandy soil. Performs poorly on very heavy soils with poor drainage. Both also do poorly to salinity (chloride) and to high calcareous soils (poor higher than about 7.8 pH), but better than most Trifoliate hybrids. Compatibility with mandarins is complex and not well understood. Nearly all mandarins perform well for at least anywhere from 10 to 15 years, but many eventually develop bud union crease and decline.

behlgarden, your question cannot be answered until it is known what soil type the tree will be planted in (loam, sandy loam, sandy, heavy soil, good drainage, poor drainage, salinity (chlorides), calcareous soils, wet soils, disease). Rootstocks are chosen that will adapt to the soil type where it is to be planted. Also, one needs to insure that the rootstock is compatible with the scion that will be grafted onto it..

According to the University of California's Citrus Production Manual, for outdoor in ground trees on Flying Dragon root stock it states...."On Flying Dragon, a strongly dwarfed root stock, orange trees not reaching more than about 7 feet tall after 20 years."

I have a Cara Cara in ground tree on Flying Dragon, and it is 11-ft tall and 11 feet wide. However, the tree is growing inside a large greenhouse, and is never subject to wind, and other restricting elements, nor uneven temperatures during the winter months.

My in ground Cara Cara (11-ft. tall X 11-ft. wide is in full flower, with approximately 80 of the flowers now fully open. This is the best flowering year since the tree was planted. I foliar sprayed the tree with low biuret urea last January, From the very beginning of flowering I have been very careful to keep the tree well watered. A dry period during a tree's flowering, will GREATLY reduces the potential harvest. A dry tree will rapidly drop some or most of the its flowers depending on the duration of drought. In approximately 10 days to two weeks, the tree will go into the EARLY DROP period, dropping the flowers and small fruitlets that the tree does not have enough energy to bring the fruit to maturity, this is a normal procedure. If every flower developed into a fruit, and the tree held on to the fruit, the tree would be crushed under its own weight. After the early drop is complete, it is then important to once again foliar spray the tree with low biuret urea. The second spray will both increase the size of the fruit, and help the tree to retains the maximum amount of fruit without diminishing fruit size.

Other trees now in full flower, Dekpon (Flowers 20 percent fully open) Xie Shan (flowers now 30 percent fully open), Valentine (tons of flowers, only 10 percent fully open), marsh grapefruit (good flowering 20 percent fully open) and a small page mandarin that has a lot of flowers, but due to the young tree's size I will let it only set two fruit. All of the trees listed in this post are in ground trees.

Low Biuret Urea is normally foliar sprayed a month before expected flowering, again after early drop, and once more after what is called in the northern hemisphere as June drop (late drop) although it does not always occur in the month of June.

Some years back I had an area with very bad drainage. I dug a hole 4 feet deep and 4 feet square. Filled it with a drainable mixture and planted a lemon tree. The tree never had any sort of problem. The hole was deep enough and wide enough that even with SLOW drainage the tree has turned out great.